


Chrystanthemums

by Okumen



Series: 101 Kisses [22]
Category: B: The Beginning (Anime)
Genre: I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-29 05:42:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14466243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okumen/pseuds/Okumen
Summary: The making of a bouqet.





	Chrystanthemums

“It depends on what you want them to mean.”

Brian glanced away from the flowers he had been scrutinizing. He had noticed somebody draw close to peruse some flowers, but he expected the person to be talking to a companion of theirs. After all, Brian had not recognized the man’s voice and there was no reason for him to suddenly address Brian. To his surprise however, the man was definitely looking at him. Brian blinked rapidly, looking to his other side to see if the stranger was speaking to somebody on his other side, but nobody was there except a wall of colorful flowers. He looked back at the stranger, who was giving him an elegant sort of small smile. Long blond hair that fell over his shoulders. So pretty. “—Eh?”

The stranger chuckled softly. “You were mumbling to yourself to quite the remarkable extent, so I couldn’t help but overhear. If you want to go beyond which ones look the nicest, choosing a color can either become easier or more difficult.”

“Really? Why’s it not just one or the— ah, because if one don’t know what they want to say it can become difficult?” There were probably other things as well but it was the thing that came to his mind first.

“Yes and, if one has to say something while they wish to say something else...that could complicate matters as well.” The man leaned forward to extract one of the chrysanthemums from the bucket they stood in, and he glanced to the side and up at Brian through pale eyelashes. “This, for example, means ‘slighted love’, because of its kind and because of its color. But perhaps you would prefer the color simply meaning ‘love’?” At the question, he tilted his head a little to the side. A lock of hair that had rested curved on his shoulder slipped off it to his chest.

“No, uh actually, neither, we’re just friends, and it’s more, one of my friends has been feeling sort of down lately and she likes flowers, so I thought I’d bring her some when I went to visit, to cheer her up.” It was an old friend from high school, who had often missed out on school and couldn’t be outside much because she was ill all the time. She wasn’t picky with flowers, he knew that, but he still wanted to choose some nice ones.

Something unreadable flickered through the stranger’s eyes. “Oh?” His smile widened just a fraction, and for the briefest of moments it almost seemed forced. But only for a moment, and it might have just been the lighting caused by a passing car on the street outside. “You seem like a good friend. Well, then neither yellow nor red is very appropriate, is it? Perhaps white for truth, if you want to combine it with other flowers, or Chinese-... Ah, they don’t seem to have those here, if at all. Do you have any idea what you want to express? I am far from an expert, but I might be able to help to some extent.”

“Uh..” Brian paused, to think about it. As he didn’t instantly come up with anything, the stranger replaced the chrysanthemum that he had taken out of its cluster. The way he tucked some hair behind an ear when he straightened up, and kept his hand by his ear for a short moment after, was very distracting. He was fluid in his movements, graceful. He bit the inside of his cheek to clear his head and formulated an answer to the man’s question before he got distracted again. “That I think that she’s worth more than she thinks, and that I’m happy that she’s my friend, and that I want it to remain that way.”

The man hummed in thought, his gaze shifting up and a little to the left. “Then, perhaps, if they have them..” He moved, and Brian followed, watching the man look over the flowers. He picked out some of them, creating a little bouquet, that he put in Brian’s hand. He brushed a gloved finger against a leaf or a petal as he proceeded to explain the meaning of them. “Coriander for ‘hidden worth’, bell flower for ‘gratitude’, arborvitae for ‘unchanging friendship’, hawthorn for ‘hope’, and magnolia for ‘love of nature’. I’m surprised, this shop is surprisingly well-stocked, despite not having Chinese chrysanthemums.” He added the last bit as an offhand comment, and Brian was sure that one of the shop’s clerics heard him, though he was unsure if they would see that as good or bad critique. Though he thought he felt a glare sent their way; the stranger seemed to either not notice or ignore it. “That.. This is a really nice bouquet. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I didn’t have anything else to— oh. I have to go. Well, goodbye.” It seemed a little curt as a parting, but he had spotted a person looking at them through the shop window — a dark-haired man in sunglasses different-colored lenses, and his mind seemed to become occupied with other thoughts. He disappeared out through the door, and Brian watched him for a few moments as he talked to the dark-haired man.

Brian looked back down at the bouquet in his hands, and back up for a moment.

 

He caught up to the strangers not far from the shop. They had been hindered by a red light and was waiting for it to change, and had they not done that he probably wouldn’t have come come to catching up. When he braced himself against his knee with one hand and tried to catch his breath as he got out an “excuse me,” the stranger with the long blond hair looked at him in surprise. “Oh, hello again.” He sounded surprised, too.

“This, I, as thank you,” Brian stuttered out, holding out one of the paper bags from the flower shop to the man, who took it with an even more bewildered expression. “It was cute so, well, uh, yeah...”

“I was really just passing the time, there really is no need… But,” Brian let out a squeak of surprise when the blond man leaned in and pressed his lips to Brian’s cheek. Brian stared at him with wide eyes, gripping the bag left in his hand tighter so he didn’t drop it, when the man rightened himself again. “thank you, nonetheless.”

The other stranger tapped the blond in the shoulder and cleared his throat. “Light’s changed, we gotta go.”

 

 

 

Minatsuki waved, a deceptively innocent smile on his lips, as he parted with the man — a member of R.I.S. though the man had not introduced himself as such, or at all — he had encountered at the florists. He could glimpse Laica’s raised eyebrow from the corner of his eye, and once they had crossed the wide street and the traffic had resumed running behind them, he turned his attention toward him. “Yes?”

“You seem to be enjoying yourself. Don’t go make random people fall in love with you, it might get troublesome.” Laica shook his head and sighed when Minatsuki sent a smirk and an arched eyebrow his way as the only reply. “I didn’t know you liked helping out strangers in your downtime.”

“You were late and I was bored, so I decided to take matters into my own hands to make the time pass more quickly.” He opened the paper bag, to peer down at the contents. “Well, I’ll say…” he murmured to himself. He could tell that Laica’s eyebrow rose even further. “Nothing, nothing,” Minatsuki hummed.

He doubted that the police officer knew that he had, technically, asked him for a dance. Quite accidentally romantic of him.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what I'm doing or where this ship came from, but it's stuck in my head and I wanted to write something light so, this happened. Ah I need to sleep...
> 
> I used the "Language and Sentiment" column's flower meanings from [this here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12SK10SXQWj4lhpkPG9tYbDK69x1JuuZ1ldl8Kh7Z9C8/edit#gid=0) list of flower meanings. If you were to look through it you'd find that the flower that Bran bought Minatsuki is a viscaria.


End file.
